Mr. and Mrs. Smith

At the beginning of the month, Amazon released a new series, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, released onto Amazon Prime Video. Mr. and Mrs. Smith follows two spies who are assigned to be married to each other as a cover to accomplish their missions. This show is a remake/reboot of the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie movie of the same name. I had not seen the original film before watching this show but am always up for a good spy story so I was interested to see where this was going to go.

In general, this was a decent enough spy show. I liked the overall structure of the show in that each episode had its own story/mission. Many TV shows have just a single running story that goes throughout the entire season. This show goes back to classic serialized TV where each episode is pretty much independent. I also like how each episode interweaves normal marriage aspects such as a vacation, dealing with navigation, working together, communication, and children and gives it a unique spy skid. I also liked how the show dove into some typical relationship issues later in the season and had the characters try to work through these issues with couple's consoling and other techniques. The show also does a good job of showing the relationship evolution between John and Jane throughout the series from being work colleagues to actually husband and wife. The performance of Donald Glover as John was great as well. He has the charm to play a very likable character. Finally, I liked how the show separated itself from the movie. The general premise is the same in that a husband and wife are both spies but that is where the similarities end. While the movie has the couple unaware that each person is a spy, the show has the couple paired up specifically to be a fake husband and wife and go on missions together. I thought it gave a fresh take on the premise and kept it from being a shot-for-shot remake.

However, there are a few issues that keep this from being a top-tier show for me. I thought that the character of Jane was a bit unlikable. I understood that being distant was a part of her character arc but it is really hard to like her and route for her throughout the show when she acts and treats John the way that she does. I also found the show a bit slow at times. I felt it could have moved at a bit more of a deliberate pace. The first couple of episodes feel like they meander a bit. There are also a few side characters that are a bit unnecessary. Specifically, the Paul Dano character, is just referred to as "The Hot Neighbor" and doesn't really have much of a purpose until the final episode and at that point, it just feels a bit out of the blue. Finally, the biggest issue is that the John and Jane characters just don't have much chemistry together. Every interaction they have together just feels so inorganic. John has enough charm but Jane's lack of charm really kind of hurts them as a couple. When the comparison is Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, these two are not even close.

Overall, this was a decent enough spy show and a better show than I was expecting. I enjoyed all the spy and relationship aspects but just wished the characters had a bit more charm together. I liked it enough to not be bored but I wouldn't subscribe to Amazon just to watch this show.

Score: 6.5/10 Grade: B- Recommendation: Check it out if you have Amazon Prime Video